


tomorrow is another day

by spaces_in_galaxies



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: Arranged Marriage, Coming of Age, F/F, F/M, HaniSeolTzu, Insecurity, M/M, Multi, Sisters, Tzuyu-centric, chaebol, lots of gayness, twice is a big fat incestuous family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-05-23 05:43:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14928242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spaces_in_galaxies/pseuds/spaces_in_galaxies
Summary: Tzuyu is not perfect, but her sisters are.Or—trapped in an engagement she doesn't want any part in, Tzuyu finds balance (and Minatozaki Sana) in her rapidly crumbling world.





	tomorrow is another day

Tzuyu is sixteen years old and engaged. The maids braid her hair in a pretty plait and whisper low congratulations, but nothing can take her mind off the cold, dreadful feeling that marriage brings in all its terrifying glory.

Her fiance is two years older than her. He's the dedicated, dependable type, the kind to bring her roses every week and take her on long walks on the beach. He's everything she's ever dreamed of and yet she hates him and the deadline that seems to be pressing closer with every breath, a looming constant in the corners of her mind.

"Unnie," she tells Hani, her voice muffled in the fabric of her sister's lap. She's not a sobbing wreck yet, but soon. "I don't—I don't want to get married."

"I know," Hani says quietly, patting her on the shoulder. She sounds tired. She'd pleaded to their mother to end the engagement ("— _she's not ready yet, she's just a child—!"_ ) but both her and Seolhyun are too old to be engaged to Kim Mingyu, and his father is insistent that the marriage happen.

Sometimes, Tzuyu wishes she were stronger. Either strong enough to run away, or to stand up to Chairman Kim and demand him to end the engagement. It'd be so easy, too, just to point her finger and have the whole thing over with.

But she stays silent. She keeps her head down, her mouth closed, and wonders when this uneasy quiet ends.

* * *

They print the news of their engagement the week before the party. 

Chaeyoung finds her first, curled up on her bed and sulking. The curtains to her room are closed tightly, casting dark shadows against the wall. On her desk a clear glass of broth sits, cold and untouched.

"Tzuyu- _ah_ , you can't do this to yourself," Chaeyoung says, parting the curtains and scattering light into the room. "Your engagement photos will be taken next week. Makeup can't solve everything."

"Says you," Tzuyu says humorlessly. She sits up, squinting at the light. "What are you here for?"

Chaeyoung pulls the rest of the blankets off with a frown. Tzuyu hasn't bothered to shower in three days, and her hair is a tangled mess that drapes over her shoulders like a mat. She's still wearing the same clothes from the day she'd holed herself in, a now-rumpled black jumper and long pants.

"Your mom was worried," Chaeyoung says, tugging Tzuyu off the bed. Tzuyu allows herself to be moved, obediently standing up when Chaeyoung drags her arm. " _We_ were worried."

She points to the ajar door. Outside, Dahyun stands awkwardly, as if she's not sure if she should enter or not. She's more Chaeyoung's friend than Tzuyu's, though they're not exactly strangers.

"You can come in," Tzuyu says, pointedly, and Dahyun fumbles in, nearly tripping over a chair.

"Look," Chaeyoung says, putting her hands on Tzuyu's shoulders. There's a nearly half-foot difference between them, so the effect is more comical than motivating. "Think positively. It's just an arranged marriage."

Dahyun blinks. "Are you sure that's helping?"

Chaeyoung mimes a zipping movement with her hand. Dahyun wisely closes her mouth.

"It's not like you guys have to be committed with each other," Chaeyoung says, returning to Tzuyu. "Say, you give birth to one, two heirs and then you both can indulge in sidechicks galore."

"Give birth," Tzuyu repeats. The idea of her stomach ballooning out is a terrifying one. There would be a life inside of there too, who would be solely dependent on her for survival.

And in addition no caffeine. No running, or swimming, or any intense exercise at all. No raw fish or eggs. Plus incontinence and all the other host of problems that came with pregnancy.

Chaeyoung backtracks, seeing her distress. "Or don't give birth. There's always surrogates for that." She pauses, thinking. "Okay. Just tell me what you're afraid of and we can fix it together."

"Marriage," Tzuyu replies bluntly.

"Have you even tried to talk to Mingyu about this?" Chaeyoung asks, shaking Tzuyu's shoulders. "He's not a bad guy. I'm sure he's nervous about the marriage too."

Tzuyu has only spoken with her fiance once, when he'd brought a bouquet of daffodils and wine chocolates to her home soon after talks of their engagement began. They'd conversed in awkward small talk for a few minutes before he had to leave again, leaving her with a vase of flowers she was vaguely allergic to and food she couldn't even eat.

"No," says Tzuyu honestly.

"You have two years before the wedding," Chaeyoung says. "I'm sure that's plenty of time to communicate with him."

"And even if you don't, at least give him a heads-up that you're ignoring him," Dahyun adds helpfully.

Chaeyoung gives her the side-eye. "Didn't I tell you to be quiet?"

Tzuyu takes advantage of Chaeyoung's distraction to slump back onto the bed, throwing a hand over her face. She's exhausted and hollow, and there's a faint smell coming from her bed that suggests it's in desperate need of washing.

" _Tzuyu_ ," says Chaeyoung, exasperated. "Get up."

"I need a nap," Tzuyu mutters.

"You need a shower," Dahyun comments, ever astute.

"Okay," says Chaeyoung, sighing. She grabs something from her bag, throwing it onto the bed. It's warm and vaguely crinkly, and Tzuyu turns around to see a copy of the  _Chosen Ilbo_ spread open by her head.

_A NEW DAWN OF MANUFACTURING: THE IMPACT OF THE KIM AND SONG PARTNERSHIP (pg A3)_

"Stop it," says Tzuyu. She throws the newspaper back at Chaeyoung. "I don't want to see—see that."

"It's even worse on the tabloids," Chaeyoung says. "The fact is, you aren't going to be able to escape from this."

Dahyun shrugs. "I mean, it's a ten hour flight to America." She looks at Tzuyu sympathetically. "I have a private jet you can borrow."

Chaeyoung elbows her. Dahyun shuts up.

Ten minutes and a shower later, Tzuyu steps out of the bathroom in a fuzzy bathrobe, feeling significantly less greasy but infinitely worse.

"Look at you," Chaeyoung cooes, eyeing the bathrobe. "Is that Gucci?"

"Custom-made," Tzuyu replies dully. "Seolhyun-unnie gave it to me for my birthday present."

"It's pretty," Dahyun comments. "Gucci is nice, but my mother says we're a Louis Vuitton family." She points to her skirt, on which the initials LV are heavily pinstriped.

"That's nice," Tzuyu says, uninterested. She settles on the chair by her desk, resisting Chaeyoung's attempts to push her outside. "I need to change first, unnie."

They leave her some space to browse through her walk-in closet. It's unexplored territory after the housekeepers had gotten through with it, so she grabs the first things she sees, a blue and white striped romper and white canvas shoes. It's not a half-bad look, she decides. Vaguely summerish. Seolhyun would be proud.

Chaeyoung drags Tzuyu by the elbow as soon as she opens the door again, pulling her out of the room and into the hallway. "You look actually presentable," she notes, surveying Tzuyu from top to bottom. "I don't know if I'm impressed or terrified."

Tzuyu resists the urge to throw one of the canvas shoes at her. Instead, she settles on pointedly remaining silent, crossing her arms as she's manhandled to wherever Chaeyoung feels the whim to go.

"Didn't they sponsor like one of your events?" Chaeyoung casually turns back to Dahyun as they pass by the staircase to downstairs, continuing the conversation Tzuyu had missed out on earlier. "It's not like you married into their family or something."

"Two, actually," Dahyun corrects. "She thinks that if we're photographed wearing enough of their clothes, we can get a third one."

"It's not like they'll stop sponsoring your products if you wear Chanel  _once_."

"Yeah, but that's one less day of publicity for LV."

They pass by the open door of Hani's office, where Hani can be seen settled in comfortably with her laptop, Korean pop music audible from the headphones. Her fingers flit across the keyboard, only taking a few seconds here and there to pause,

"Wow," Chaeyoung remarks to no one in particular. She looks to Tzuyu. "I wish Hyun-cheol was half as capable as your sister. Then my parents won't have to worry that much about the future of the company anymore."

"Unnie's all set to inherit the family business," Tzuyu shrugs. Bitterness courses through her. "She's too valuable to be given away for marriage."

Chaeyoung sighs. "Stop thinking about it that way," she says, snaking a hand around Tzuyu's shoulder. "Look, weren't your parents an arranged marriage too? They're plenty happy together."

"Eomoni was supposed to be engaged with abeonim's older brother," Tzuyu says, flatly. "They threatened to elope if they weren't allowed to marry each other."

It's a sweet story, though it's far too romanticized for her liking. A previously suppressed memory of her Uncle Jay drunkenly toasting her during the last family dinner flashes through her mind: "— _I was almost your father, kid—!"_

Her mother hadn't been very pleased about the toast. Uncle Jay had disappeared somewhere in America shortly after that, and Tzuyu had never heard from him again.

"Oh," says Chaeyoung. She bites her lip. " _Chewie_ , just tell me if there's anything that I can do to help.  _We_ ," she corrects, seeing Dahyun's huffy expression. As if an afterthought, she adds, "I still think you should talk to Mingyu."

"I don't want to," Tzuyu says, stubborn. She pushes her hands through the pockets of the romper, toying around with the fabric. "I won't."

It's a promise. There are only seven hundred or so days of freedom left. She isn't keen to waste a single one of them.

The three of them settle in the living room on the couches, Dahyun and Chaeyoung snuggled together on the loveseat while Tzuyu savors her armchair.

"You should consider my suggestion," Dahyun says, out of the blue, after a moment of awkward silence. "It wouldn't be hard to disappear in America. I can totally fund you."

"I'm sure Eomoni would still find a way to track me down," Tzuyu grumbles, but not after a moment of actual consideration. "I wouldn't be surprised if she put a GPS tracker on me. I would, if I were in her shoes."

"Go to outer space," Dahyun says seriously. "Next time Elon Musk launches something I'll smuggle you in the Tesla."

They all laugh at the ridiculousness of the statement. Dahyun has a way with words that make things seem more trivial than they really are. Tzuyu finds her mind drawn away from the impending engagement, and it's a small relief.

* * *

 [enter-talk] KIM MINGYU'S ENGAGEMENT

Posted July 12th 17:42

I've been an admirer of Kim Mingyu since middle school. He's really too amazing ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

 I got so p*ssed off when I heard about the engagement. He was forced by his family to marry for the company partnership, and his fiancee is sixteen, isn't this too much???

Honestly I feel bad for the chaebol kids who are their parents' pawns, ah. They don't have any choice but to do what they're forced to by the corporation.

**[+930][-439]**

July 12th 17:46 | Delusional admirers are the worst [+542][-324]

July 12th 17:54 | Why do people feel bad for chaebols? You think that they're unhappy wearing Versace everyday? [+230][-125]

July 12th 18:02 | Kim Mingyu is too f*cking handsome ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ [+120][-55]

July 12th 17:51 | He gets to marry a pretty girl and continue his wealthy lifestyle, I don't see anything bad about that [+358][-294]

July 12th 18:23 | Poor Mingyu TT.TT [+94][-48]

July 12th 19:37 | I hope all chaebols rot in hell [+13][-35]  


End file.
